Jamaica Road in SE London can be a bit of a nightmare at peak times: what is a dual carriageway both ways was transformed a few years back to be a permanent bus lane on each carriageway (with stupid bus lane signs that tell you’re not allowed in them Monday to Sunday at any time … i.e. simply at no time) and just one lane of other traffic each way.

Couple this with width restrictions at the Rotherhithe Tunnel and you’ve guaranteed traffic chaos.

Now some of us locals know of a rat run that allow us to get closer to the roundabout, albeit we’re still messed up by the last section of bus lane, and this works to relieve congestion on the main red route.

But no. Southwark Council know better: they’ve now introduced a one-way flow on the main/only through street which means anyone trying the rat run will now have to try pulling out into Jamaica Road twice (and no doubt there will be many blocking the bus lanes accordingly) and then back into the minor side roads. This was introduced via public consultation that only local residents would have known about. Certainly I don’t remember their useless newsletter making any mention of it.

Absolutely ridiculous and yet another waste of my tax money. What a bunch of idiots!

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I love the way that Southwark Council confined the notices and public consultations to a very small area that only they deemed would be affected by the closures. Also they worded the question on road closures to only allow respondents to prefer one option or the other, not to vote against both proposals. Rigged or what? And finally the Council say that as they cannot make any changes to Jamaica Road – it’s managed by TfL – any detrimental effect on Jamaica Road isn’t their problem! What a bunch of self-serving fecktards! Still, I suppose they have to try to justify their non-jobs by coming up with these ridiculous plans.

[…] back in the mists of time, I wrote a bit about how Southwark Council had decided to make traffic congestion worse on Jamaica Road, SE London by stopping local drivers from using a ‘rat-run’. Their […]